Lido Staked Ether has surpassed XRP to become the sixth largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of over $31 billion.
The Lido Staked Ether (stETH) bull market is largely attributed to ethereum's significant gains this month, with the second-largest cryptocurrency hitting $3,200 today and a 40% rise for the token in February alone.
Dune Analytics data shows that Ether deposits on Lido are approaching 10 million eth, as the protocol has not seen any net outflows since December 19. Currently, Lido Staked Ether represents 35% of all EH deposits on EigenLayer, one of the leading platforms providing access to ethereum staked capital.
Lido staked ether represents a tokenized version of ethereum staked on the ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain, facilitated by the Lido decentralized finance (defi) protocol. Lido allows users to stake their ethereum without locking up the assets or maintaining the staking infrastructure, thus addressing some of the key limitations associated with the ethereum 2.0 staking mechanism.
<img decoding="async" width="1024" height="484" src="https://crypto.news/app/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-26-204525-1024×484.png” alt=”Lido Staked Ether Net Deposits”/>
At the same time, XRP is underperforming the market rally, losing almost 2.5% in a week. Even though bitcoin, ethereum, and Solana posted notable gains today, the price of XRP has only seen a 0.5% increase.
XRP traders are showing quite cautious sentiment in the market as the ongoing battle with the SEC is still far from over. If the ruling favors the SEC, XRP could pay $2.64 billion in sanctionsmaking 2024 the most profitable financial year for the commission.
Despite XRP's disappointing performance this year, whales have invested $40 million in XRP over the past 10 days. This could suggest possible buying on the altcoin's dip, which could eventually push XRP above its $0.58 resistance level in March.
